In the period piece “Belle” out this Friday, Miranda Richardson plays Lady Ashford.
Can you speak about your experience wearing a corset in the film?
Miranda: My personal experiences are usually good ones. I had one terrible one. I was making a movie in Italy … many years ago, very illustrious cast, not so illustrious director and the … costumes which were exquisite, exquisite costume house and Milena Canonero who I then went to work with on “Damage”. No corsets in “Damage” and they, which was very funny, I mean for the character they got me in so tight they gave me a fantastic shape, but literally, I mean I literally was like this and what was so cruel was that the production had their own chef and their own pasta-making chef on the production and I could have about that much before I was in terrible pain so that was not fair. That was not fair.
How about your wig? Was that horse hair?
Miranda: It’s real hair. It’s not horse hair. No, not so extreme (Questioner: It’s so big) It is, but they were going to go bigger and I went, “Guys, I think she’s not that person. I think she’s this person.” And they were going to have a lot more fun … with her, but you know it has to be based in reality and if people are just going to be distracted all the time by looking at her going, “What is that about?” Then you can’t get the story across. That’s what I felt, you know.
How did this affect your performance?
Miranda: I think it’s very helpful, you know, because it’s somewhat about constraint but it’s also everybody is doing what we all do. We move around, you know. We have to go from a to b, whatever. It’s just everything took longer, you know? Being dressed, you had to have somebody to do that for you. If you were lower down in the system, you had a front-fastening corset so you could do it yourself, you know, front lacing. So, you didn’t need a slave or a servant to do that for you. You couldn’t afford that, you know. It’s fascinating how these things come about.
Was the hair heavy?
Miranda: No, not really and also if it’s cold it keeps you warm. The only annoying thing was on the Isle of Man when we were doing the night shoot when they’re walking in the gardens. There was a really kind of high wind that night and I got buffeted around a bit but then I thought that was actually quite funny for her character because it’s so not what she would hope would happen. You know, she would just want to keep appearances all the time and it’s her most vulnerable in a way because she’s having to say, without saying, that you know, that she’d like to make a match for her son and then the bombshell is it’s not going to happen. There’s no money there … for Elizabeth. Not for Dido but for Elizabeth. So, she has to think again and she does very quickly.
Can you speak about collaborating with Amma Asante?
Miranda: Well, she’s great, you know. She’s a force of nature. She’s very strong, in that she knows what she wants. If you’ve got a question, she’s got an answer. She’s so fun. She’s very sparky. She’s so happy to be fulfilling this project which she wanted to do for years and I think years,. Long, long time. Gone through a lot of permutations. So, I like her a lot.
The dialogue is beautiful. The way that people spoke back then, they wouldn’t say a paragraph, they would give you a paragraph of information in one sentence.
Miranda: It was sometimes tricky. You have to get your head around it a little bit but what’s interesting about this script is, it’s on the cusp of being modern. It’s actually quite fresh and I’m a bit of a stickler for not having split infinitives .. Normally I am very, very strong on it, so if I see one in a script, I go “That’s too modern. I won’t be saying that. Can we find another way? I suggest this,” you know and … it is usually much more elegant and they’re creeping in. I know language is living and moves on, but to my ear it’s just like, “Ahh,” you know. The famous one is to “Boldly go where no man has gone before.” The “Star Trek” thing. Every time it comes on I go like…(Questioner: You cringe, huh?) Yeah, I just I got that from my mom I’m afraid she always told me that. But I think that’s partly the attraction of the script because you feel there’s a shift happening, you know, it’s accessible to modern day audiences, completely accessible. So, it’s not quite eighteenth century speak and it’s not entirely modern speak but it’s somewhere moving towards modernity.
Was it exciting to tell a story that’s never been told before?
Miranda: Yeah, very exciting and that you feel should be told and, you know, hopefully people will become more aware of it now and as we’ve all been saying, these stories must be legion, you know. There must be so many more, but the one’s that you’re less likely to hear about perhaps are the lower down the social scale, I suggest because those get more easily swept under the carpet, you know.
Can you speak more about the historical background?
Miranda: Well, I’m doing the script, you know, and Tom would say the same thing. The research is kind of in the script, although we did have production notes and it sort of becomes obvious. I mean, I’m sure that you all learned quite a lot of stuff about what it was like to be in that time from watching this movie without going and sitting in the library or online for hours on end but it might well spark an interest. I hope in the younger demographic particularly watching this movie and that this story might be told more often. That would be good. Very cool.
Can you speak about working with Gugu because she’s kind of a new face?
Miranda: Yeah, she’s very, very sweet. She’s smart. I’ve never seen her in a bad mood. She’s lovely and very, very committed as you might expect to this. It’s self- evident. Lovely. Terrific. Everyone’s great.
And Tom Felton, he’s someone you’ve known before?
Miranda: Well, I’ve worked with him a long, long time ago and Tom is always the same. He’s just always the same … he works at a slightly different tempo. So, I have fun by just going in and blasting him really .. and he goes, “What did you say? What was your last job? What…?” You know …he’s a catch up motions kind of thing like that but, no he’s funny because he sort of comes across as lugubrious but he’s not. He’s not really a melancholy person or anything like that. No, he’s done a cracking job in this I think.
You are obviously nothing like that character what was that like?
Miranda: Well, that was quite fun. It’s quite fun because she’s so practical and she is desperate to get her boys married and to get them a little bit higher up the social ladder and that’s the be all and end all. I like the fact that you understand everybody’s viewpoint in this time, in the film, in the time they were in but there’s some people really do evolve. I mean, she has a kind of an evolution, even though it’s money driven by saying, “Ok, well, maybe we could be prepared to accept this person in the family,” which comes…she’s been brought up in a certain way and she’s going to come into money and that will give everybody benefits and I don’t think she’s a cruel person, I just think she’s practical and wielding such power as she has. Which is, the women were always the ones going out doing the matchmaking and socializing, you know.
That’s such a rarity that you see, obviously as you mentioned, moms trying to get the son’s married as opposed to setting their daughters up.
Miranda: It is a sort of an equalizer in a way, this film, and Lord Mansfield goes on a journey he’s a good man already but even so, you know, he’s prepared to take on the idea that the insurance company should be paid for loss of cargo but wait a minute, how can you ever class human kind as cargo? How does that work, you know? But he does the right thing and he moves things on.
What was it like working with Emily Watson and Penelope Wilton?
Miranda: They’re lovely, they’re lovely. Yes, I mean we socialized and Penelope, she’s a great walker. So, me and James who plays Oliver, my son, and I went off on a little train ride one day on the Isle of Man to get to somewhere that we could walk, do a long walk back and that was great and she’s fun, you know, she’s twinkly. Gosh, I hadn’t seen Emily for ages. She’s lovely, she’s much more internal than Penelope, but everybody’s so funny, quietly funny. So, yeah, we’d all hang out together. No problem.
You know, one thing that’s interesting and of course, it’s how far we’ve come but then you think about how far we still need to go. Was this something that entered into the conversation in your own head or among the cast of, “Wow, I’m glad we’ve got this far but boy does it make you think about how far we still have to go.
Miranda: Yes, I think it did, the preamble to filming certainly but you’re doing the script and you’re showing that in this case a shift, some sort of shift was made, some sort of move forward and that’s what needs to keep happening really. Just because it was then doesn’t mean we’ve won in any of these subjects so, you know, yes it’s about being vigilant really, isn’t it, you know? This is why we have organizations like Change.org and things drawing our attention to all sorts of things and drawing our attention now to all sorts of things, individual plights and group plights and tremendous atrocities and, you know, tiny, almost hidden stories as well that need to be brought out into the light, you know, so.
These days, how do you choose your projects?
Miranda: Writing is a big part of it. Of course, if there’s a director already attached and other people, that’s all part of it. I mean I’m about to do a project in England which is going to last nine weeks I think and that’s going to be pretty full on but it also should be tremendous fun and it will almost be like an ensemble, an acting ensemble because it’s set in a village with all these characters who are resident in the village. So, that’s going to be quite fun because the characters all develop as time goes on, so yeah that’s the hope anyway
Tell us more about that project.
Miranda: It’s television. It’s a three part television and it’s a very English story. It’s called “Mapp and Lucia” and Mapp and Lucia are two women who, one who lives in the village, Miss Mapp and Lucia who comes into the village and rents a cottage, my house for the summer and so she enters a kind of, not exactly a futile system of this village – it’s set in the late’20’s and early ’30s … that peculiar time of almost innocence between the wars. Where everything was kind of sunshine and light and new ideas and this village is its own little tight community and these two women kind of rub up against each other because they both sort of want to run the community. So, it should be tremendous fun. It’s a series of books which is quite well known in England and very well loved, so I’m looking forward to it.
Who is you favorite character that you’ve ever played and is there anyone that you would like to play still?
Miranda: Oh my God, well some of them might not be written. I really enjoyed, I was in a play as opposed to a film. I really enjoyed “A Lie of the Mind,” which was at the Royal Court Theatre years and years ago, playing Beth and that was a very happy production. I loved being in that. So, that’s one of my favorites, I would say and I’m sure there are lots of things I want to do, I’m sure.
You’ve played characters in the middle, you’ve played evil ones, you’ve played the good ones, what still do you enjoy about each?
Miranda: Anything that’s got complexity really or that you can bring complexity to so that it’s not just black and white in terms of story. It’s just lots of things going on. I always look for that really, yeah.
Why do you think “Belle” is more important today than ever?
Miranda: Well because I think because, as you said earlier, we’ve still got a lot of ground to cover. I think it’s unusual in that she’s brought up in high society … she’s low born, but because of who her father is, she’s given high born status and that’s how she grows up and that is what she knows and that’s what informs her life and some are always more equal than others. You know, that’s always been true and still is true.
There’s still the class structure in England, but it’s sort of slowly but surely being eroded away.
Miranda: There are absolutely charming individuals and people who do wonderful things with the gifts that they’ve been given and specifically money. You know, they’re not all evil. So, there are people who cross class all the time, always have been and always will, but the yeah, the haves and the have nots and political system which proports to bring on the underdogs, but doesn’t really, you know, it is self-serving in the end. It’s not helpful. It’s not something one would want to be a part of really.
What’s the great difference that you see between America in that regard and England?
Miranda: I think it’s more entrenched in our country, you know? I think that because this is the land of possibility and, you know, theoretically anyone can get to be president. There’s more idealism and possibly hope here. I don’t mean we’re all in a depressed state over there, I just mean we’re not so energized.
